Forma Almost ready to give up entirely on Forma

[marst]

Before launching in let me try a question first: Is there any known way to download a just-purchased book from the Kobo book site to one's computer, as an .epub file? Now on to the rest...

I'm all but ready to give up on this Kobo Forma. It wasn't cheap, it is often failing, and I'm at my wit's end. Perhaps someone who has experienced the same kinds of problems will know what to do.

Despite our having a pretty fast net connection and good wifi connectivity in this house, the Kobo rarely gets more than one "bar" for its connection to the house network. But even when has 2 or 3 bars, it has flat-out stopped being able to sync to the Kobo site or download any new books. It can't even download existing books that have been removed from the device (but not by me—more on that below). It was getting worse in this way over the last couple of weeks and then two or three days ago I just gave up. The thing never gets past the checking-for-updates stage—it just never connects.

If it were possible to download Kobo books to one's PC, I could at least side-load them by copying them from the computer to the .kobo directory via USB.

This kind of failure has occurred several times since I got the e-reader. Over time, sync slows down, then simply halts. When I've contacted their tech support, the suggestion is always "repair your acccount."

Yeah, that works, and it comes with nasty drawbacks. 1) The reset removes a number of books from the device. Then they must be downloaded all over again. (I did not remove them myself.) 2) All books I've side-loaded are immediately erased and have to be side-loaded again. I suspect this also blows away all of the side-loaded books' highlights. These two problems make the "repair" step unacceptable any longer.

What to conclude? Is Kobo's "ecosystem" poorly designed or poorly maintained? Is this particular device just plain defective?

If anyone can think of solutions _other_ than simply "repairing" the account every time it becomes unable to sync, I will be really grateful for your advice.

[Barbara1955]

Sounds like you DL a Glich like one of the ebooks is defected. I Suggest you take BACK To FACTORY. Still having problem contact Kobo...

How old it this device? Under a year Again contact kobo! They will send you another one.

[ps67]

If You have a Windows PC or a Mac You can use Kobo Desktop and sync Your Kobo with it. You will obtain a Kepub just like You sync with wi fii.

You can also install Adobe Digital Editions and download Your books with a browser from Kobo site, then You will have a ACSM file (if there is DRM) and then transfer the file on Your Kobo. You will obtain a Epub.

But anyway if other devices works with Your wi fii there is a problem with You Kobo. Also my Aura One has some problem, sometime I need to try several times before to connect. And A time, after a factory reset, it completely refused do do it and I was obliged to use Kobo Desktop to sign it on my Kobo account.

[marst]

I have never seen a way of downloading a book to the PC from a Kobo site, outside the Kobo app for Windows. How is this done?

I do have the Kobo app for Windows but I don't see anything in it that indicates synchronizing the Kobo device itself to the Windows version. It is a very crude program. I can definitely download some of the books I'm missing into the Windows Kobo program—but how do I transfer them to the device?

Other devices in our house always connect to the wifi and the connection is very fast.

Up to now, this Kobo continues to tell me that I need to set up Adobe Digital Editions to read certain books—even though I did already register the device with ADE.

Unfortunately, the device is too old to be returned for warranty repair or replacement.

As an experiment I tried to side-load a book file that I had downloaded from the Windows Kobo app—but the device did not "see" the file.

I appreciate your replies.

[marst]

I know that the "repair your account" procedure on the Kobo will probably fix this—but causes the problems I mentioned in the original post, one of the worst problems being that all side-loaded books are erased from the device. Then they have to be manually side-loaded again.

If you simply sign out of your Kobo account and sign back in, does this same unwanted erasure also occur? (I realize that might not repair the account, though.)

[marst]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

Sounds like you DL a Glich like one of the ebooks is defected. I Suggest you take BACK To FACTORY. Still having problem contact Kobo...

How old it this device? Under a year Again contact kobo! They will send you another one.

I appreciate your reply.

This problem is now happening with all books. The device claims either that it is trying to sync (but it never does) or at other times it says "downloading books"—and it no longer does.

My experience with Kobo tech support is "mixed." The usual response has been "repair your account." They do not seem to know why these problems occur. They just tell you to "repair". The last time this happened the service adviser insisted that with the repair completed, this problem will not occur again. She was wrong, of course.

For the reasons mentioned in the original post, this is not going to be a good solution any longer—I have had to do it already three times. The device is about a year and a half old, maybe more. I suppose it is possible they might send another one but with it being this age, I doubt it. By contrast, syncing with the Kobo app for Windows takes place almost immediately. I suppose it is possible that the Kobo's ability to connect to wifi has become defective. (Then again the fact that the "repair account" procedure does solve the problem—temporarily—suggests to me that there might be something seriously wrong with their "ecosystem" with respect to the e-reader devices.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by marst

I have never seen a way of downloading a book to the PC from a Kobo site, outside the Kobo app for Windows. How is this done?

Click "My Account" and then "My Books". That displays all the books you have purchased from Kobo. Click the three dots next to each book and choose "Download". And follow the prompts.

I do have the Kobo app for Windows but I don't see anything in it that indicates synchronizing the Kobo device itself to the Windows version. It is a very crude program. I can definitely download some of the books I'm missing into the Windows Kobo program—but how do I transfer them to the device?

Did you have the device connected when running the desktop application? When it is connected, the application will sync the device in the same way it does over WiFi. There will also be an "Ereader" tab and you can change which books are on the device.

Other devices in our house always connect to the wifi and the connection is very fast.

I don't think the Kobo devices are very fast over WiFi. I assume it is at least partly the low-end hardware in the devices. But, it could be the hardware is slow doing the work the device does when handling the books. Probably the best test would be to use the browser to download a large book.

Up to now, this Kobo continues to tell me that I need to set up Adobe Digital Editions to read certain books—even though I did already register the device with ADE.

I only have one of my ereaders authorised for ADE at the moment. It worked fine the other day when I used ADE to put books on it. I think the times I have had problems, I either just deauthorised the device and authorised it again. But, I have had to do a signout of the Kobo account on the device at least once. I don't normally worry as I either read the copy downloaded directly to the device or strip the DRM.

Unfortunately, the device is too old to be returned for warranty repair or replacement.

As an experiment I tried to side-load a book file that I had downloaded from the Windows Kobo app—but the device did not "see" the file.

That won't work unless you add an extension (".epub" for it to be treated as an epub or ".kepub.epub" for a kepub) and it is DRM free. Putting it in the .kobo/kepub directory won't work.

[gtriever]

I've noticed that as your library grows larger, sync seems to slow down. My workaround has been to go to the Kobo windows app, download the book(s) as David posted above, and then Archive the books.

I then process everything through Calibre and load the books from there. As a "failsafe" I back up the Kobo Database after every session so I can restore it if there's a problem with the device.

[NiLuJe]

As far as the amount of bars, don't worry about it, it's wonky as hell.

The UI is not helpful to begin with, but the hardware itself reports link quality values that are low enough to make handling then properly on the UI front tricky.

[petercreasey]

Try taking your ereader closer to the router.

Download your ebooks from kobo using ADE 2. Then move them from the ADE 2. library to your ereader.

[Barbara1955]

No they wont exchange an 18 month old device. Might be time to buy a new Kobo

[JSWolf]

The solution is to install Adobe Digital Editions 2.0.1 and authorize it. Install the latest version of Calibre. Install the latest version DeDRM plugin from The Apprentice Alf blog. Once the DeDRM plugin is install in Calibre, configure it to remove the DRM from ePub. Then decide if you want to read ePub or KePub. If you want to read KePub, install the KoboTouchExtended Driver and use that to load eBooks to your Kobo.

There are other things you'll want to setup in Calibre like collections and such. But you can find threads here about Calibre. Or start a new thread asking what to configure and what plugins to install.

[Sirtel]

I agree with JSWolf. Relying on direct downloads is a valley of tears. That's true even with Kindles, and with Kobos as well.

[marst]

Originally Posted by Barbara1955

No they wont exchange an 18 month old device. Might be time to buy a new Kobo

Methinks that if I need a new device, it won't be a KOBO. This one has caused more problems than any other e-reading solution to date. I have yet to try some of the suggestions made in this thread, though. Those are next.

[marst]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Click "My Account" and then "My Books". That displays all the books you have purchased from Kobo. Click the three dots next to each book and choose "Download". And follow the prompts.

Ok—that did mostly solve the problem of not getting the book to sync on the Kobo. Procedure: Go to Kobo account online; follow your previous instructions to download the book—the only option I seemed to have was to download an .ACSM file. Open the newly downloaded .ACSM file in ADE on the laptop. Find the control that enables you to copy the book to the Kobo. (There are two places in the ADE software where that option appears. It works in one location and not in the other—good testing there, Adobe. But I'll take what I can get.)

The cover art written to the device is inferior to the original art. For some reason it doesn't correctly fit the dimensions of the book's icon in the Kobo library as it once did in the past. Peculiar—but at least it's there and can be read.

But there's now a big difference between how it "works" now and how it appeared before the Kobo "disappeared" it. When I first downloaded this book months back, all of the usual typographic controls worked, including one that I use in most books: switch the alignment style from full left/right justification to flush-left/ragged-right. That option has worked for every book I've used so far on the Kobo, including all of my side-loaded books. This one book I've finally been able to get back onto the Kobo is the only one in which the switch-to-flush-left command doesn't work. Every other typographic control works, but not that one. Weird.

I opened it in both ADE's reader and the Kobo app on the laptop. Neither program seems to have an alignment feature at all. What remarkably crude tools. (How much do they pay developers to write such stuff? Those programs are way cruder than the original Kindle software.)

Any thoughts on how I might restore the book's "willingness" to accept all possible typographic controls?

Thanks again.